Community gardens have many benefits.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Jan VanderTuin For The Register-Guard

There are many ways in Eugene to connect to our food, to the cycles of the Earth and to our community, all at the same time. We can connect through stores that support our local farmers, through farmers' markets, by joining a community-supported agriculture project, and at farm stands, pick-your-own farms and home gardens. And we can connect to the cycles through community garden plots.

My personal path to community gardens started in the family garden. From the age of 12, I worked after school and throughout summers on conventional vegetable and fruit farms. When I was 19 my employer and mentor and his wife turned over their 126-acre apple farm to me to manage. I sprayed chemicals, supplied a large multinational cannery and worked with migrant laborers who lived in squalid conditions.

In California, I worked for years on a large organic farm and in aquaculture. In Europe, I became involved in producer-consumer cooperatives connected to organic farms. On arriving back in the United States, I initiated the first community-supported agriculture project in Massachusetts. I have a hands-on education in food supply systems.

For years I searched for improvements in food production concepts, for ways that farmers and gardeners can be appreciated both socially and economically, and for ways to make growing food a pleasure instead of a chore.

I am surprised at how I overlooked community gardens as an important food production concept. This year that changed. I and others from around the city connected to growing food, building community and developing agriculture through an urban community garden in Skinner Butte Park.

How did this come about? Eight years ago, a group of us presented the idea to city of Eugene staff. Working together, we began to plan and construct the city's sixth community garden and a historic farm.

Over the years - with the help of the Neighborhood Matching Grants Program, students from the Center for Appropriate Transport's educational program, other nonprofit partner organizations and numerous volunteers working with our group's nonprofit organization - we created a place we named Skinner City Farm.

We have put in 100 fence posts, encircled an acre with horse fence and four sturdy artistic gates, established the city's largest worm bin system, put in an excellent irrigation system and prepped the soil with cover crops and amendments. This year, the garden plots were filled by people and nonprofit organizations interested in growing their own food.

The infrastructure and the development of historic and community programming for this project cost roughly $35,000. In my opinion, that is a great prioritization and allocation of dollars.

Not to minimize this sum, but any city planner will tell you that $35,000 is a pittance in the scope of Eugene's $446.8 million annual budget. To get perspective, a parking space for one car in a downtown garage costs $35,000.

In the garden, people meet and the community connects. We have seen low-income people get food and learn self-sufficiency. We have seen clients from social service agencies gain major rewards. We have seen many teenagers learn where food comes from and the value of hard work. We have seen real "urban renewal" of an abandoned site.

We have seen young children playing, planting and picking. We have seen the sharing of skills and food. We have seen cooperation in accomplishing the bigger tasks, such as the initial turning of the soil and bringing in compost.

Of all the forms of food production, this has got to be one of the most satisfying. One comment that stands out is the one made by an older gardener while planting her first vegetables. She said the community garden experience is ``better than Prozac.'' It is a wiser investment, too, for her and the community's psyche and pocketbook.

So I implore my community to allocate more funds for Eugene's Neighborhood Matching Grants Program and the Community Gardens Program. These gardens can develop local food security, reduce our dependence on fossil-fueled foods, build relationships, explore our agricultural history and educate the next generation. They are surely one of the best investments of our community's wealth.

Let's start more community gardens.

Jan VanderTuin is a co-founder and garden manager of Skinner City Farm.